How to check and get json object in WP database?

I need to check if an option value from database is a json object.

This funtion following cannot work :

function isJson( string $str, $is_assoc = true ){
    json_decode( $str, $is_assoc );
    return (json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_NONE);
}

It´s normal because with an SQL query I got :

a:2:{i:3;a:4:{s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:4:"text";s:503:"...}}

instead of

{ '3' : { 'title' : "", 'text' : "..." }...}}

How can I do to check if this data is a json object and to get this data as object ?

Final goal : Reaplace correclty value for json object in the database without breaking serialized data.

I need to check if an option value from database is a json object.

This funtion following cannot work :

function isJson( string $str, $is_assoc = true ){
    json_decode( $str, $is_assoc );
    return (json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_NONE);
}

It´s normal because with an SQL query I got :

a:2:{i:3;a:4:{s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:4:"text";s:503:"...}}

instead of

{ '3' : { 'title' : "", 'text' : "..." }...}}

How can I do to check if this data is a json object and to get this data as object ?

Final goal : Reaplace correclty value for json object in the database without breaking serialized data.

• database
• json

Share Improve this question edited Apr 7, 2020 at 20:23 fuxia♦ 107k3838 gold badges255255 silver badges459459 bronze badges asked Apr 7, 2020 at 17:00 J.BizMaiJ.BizMai 90022 gold badges1010 silver badges3030 bronze badges 1

• Do you have control of the data? is it prepared by yourself before saving it to database? Did you try unserialize it for further manipulations? – 西門 正 Code Guy - JingCodeGuy Commented Apr 7, 2020 at 17:32

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

To check if a string from database is like a:2:{i:3;a:4:{s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:4:"text";s:503:"...}}, you can use the function is_serialized()

To get the data as php array :

if(is_serialized($data_as_string)){
    $data_as_array = unserialize( $data_as_string);
}